Jean S. Gearon

Substance abuse treatment for people with schizophrenia

Substance abuse by people with schizophrenia is a serious public health problem that is associated with poor treatment compliance, increased rates of relapse, and disruption of role functioning. There is widespread agreement on the need to integrate psychiatric and substance abuse treatment for this dual disorder, but to date there are no specific treatments with solid empirical support. We first review the primary consequences of substance abuse by people with schizophrenia and then examine what is currently known about their treatment needs. We then describe the special problems faced by this population that interfere with their ability to reduce substance use, with or without treatment. The remainder of the paper focuses on description of a new behavioral treatment we have developed to compensate for the cognitive and motivational deficits that characterize the illness. We describe the development process and present some process data that demonstrate that the intervention is safe and acceptable for people with schizophrenia, and that we are able to train therapists to administer the procedures in a consistent and effective manner. Future studies will examine the effectiveness of the intervention.

Women with schizophrenia and co-occurring substance use disorders: an increased risk for violent victimization and HIV.

Women with serious mental illnesses are at riskfor victimization and HIV. Schizophrenia relatedneurocognitive and social competency deficitsexacerbated by the effects of substance abuse may make women with schizophrenia particularlyvulnerable. Information processing deficits may impairthe ability to identify situations or interpersonal cuessignaling danger, and make it difficult to remember and hence avoid, situations, people, or placespreviously proven dangerous. Social competency deficitsinterfere with the ability to form lastingrelationships, negotiate out of dangerous situations,refuse unreasonable requests, and effectively problemsolve. Given the potential increased vulnerability ofthis population to these negative outcomes, empiricallybased manualized preventive interventions are greatly needed.

Treating substance abuse in schizophrenia An initial report

Schizophrenia patients show alarmingly high rates of substance use disorders. These patients experience neurocognitive and social deficits that make it difficult for them to benefit from effective treatment strategies designed for less-impaired populations. Previously, we described Behavioral Treatment for Substance Abuse in Schizophrenia and discussed how the program was adapted for this population. Here we provide an update of BTSAS, discuss our clinical experience running the intervention, and review how it has changed over five years of development. We present attendance, participation, and substance use data on patients who consented to attend (n = 42), completed (n=14), and dropped out (n = 14) of the program. Outcome data are provided for 14 patients, and comparisons are made between good (n = 5; > or = 67% of urine tests clean from a goal drug over 6 months) and poor (n = 9; < or = 66% of urine tests clean) progress patients. Implications for the treatment are discussed.

Sex differences in illness presentation, course, and level of functioning in substance-abusing schizophrenia patients

Studies of gender differences in schizophrenia have concluded that women experience a more benign form of the illness than men as evidenced by later age of illness onset, less debilitating psychiatric symptomatology, fewer psychiatric hospitalizations, and better premorbid and overall functioning. Little research, however, has focused on documenting the potential negative impact of substance use on these clinical outcomes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate gender differences in the effects of substance use on the course and presentation of schizophrenia. Two groups of schizophrenia outpatients were evaluated: 34 with substance-use disorders and 33 with no history of substance-use disorders. Sex comparisons were conducted on rates of current psychiatric symptoms, age of onset, number of previous hospitalizations and ratings of general level of functioning. The results suggest that the more benign course and presentation of illness ordinarily seen in women with schizophrenia become muted when they use substances. The data further suggest that women may be especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of substance use. Collectively, these findings highlight the need for additional research and the development of more effective treatment interventions for this population of women.

Generalization of training effects in schizophrenia.

The primary goal of this study was to investigate transfer of training (generalization) in patients with schizophrenia. We randomly assigned 33 schizophrenia subjects to one of three conditions: training on the Wisconsin Card Sort Test (WCST-T), training on the Halstead Category Test (CAT-T), or no training (No-T). The WCST and CAT were administered to all subjects at baseline. Subjects in the WCST-T and CAT-T groups then received training on the respective test, while the No-T group received additional untrained trials. All participants were subsequently retested on the WCST and CAT, and completed a brief neuropsychological battery. As hypothesized, the WCST-T and CAT-T groups exhibited large improvements on the trained test and moderate improvement on the untrained test, while the No-T group failed to show improvement on either test. These results suggest that the training paradigm did produce generalization, and that the changes were not due to practice effects. The extent of generalization across both training groups was strongly associated with neuropsychological test performance (Spearmans rho=0.56, P<0.05). The implications of these findings for rehabilitation programs were discussed, and recommendations were made for future research.

Drug-use behavior and correlates in people with schizophrenia

This study examined how illicit drugs were accessed, reasons for drug use, prevalence of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, psychiatric symptomatology, level of functioning, and the relationship of these factors to substance use in 25 schizophrenia outpatients. To identify unique substance-use behaviors or correlates, this information was compared to 25 substance-abusing outpatients with major affective disorders, and 30 people with schizophrenia alone. Patients largely financed their drug habits with money given by immediate family members, and reported using drugs primarily for social reasons. While all three groups reported high levels of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, a relationship between emotional abuse and substance use was observed only for people with schizophrenia. There were no differences between the two schizophrenia groups in psychiatric symptoms or level of functioning. The treatment implications of these findings are discussed.

Preliminary reliability and validity of the clinician-administered PTSD Scale for schizophrenia

This study provides preliminary psychometric support for a version of the Clinician-Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Scale (CAPS; D. D. Blake et al., 1990) adapted for use with patients with schizophrenia (CAPS-S; J. S. Gearon. S. Thomas-Lohrman, & A. S. Bellack, 2001). Nineteen women with schizophrenia and co-occurring illicit drug use disorders were administered the CAPS-S, the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV diagnoses (SCID). and scales measuring trauma-related psychopathology. The results indicate that the CAPS-S can distinguish between those with and without PTSD and that the symptom clusters measure unified constructs. Interrater and test-retest reliability were high for PTSD diagnosis and symptom clusters. Solid convergent validity was demonstrated between the CAPS-S and SCID-based PTSD diagnoses and the Impact of Event Scale. There is also preliminary evidence of discriminant validity. These results support the use of the CAPS-S in women with schizophrenia.